November 27, 2007

A.J. was good, but he wasn’t that good.

Going into Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots, beaten-down and frustrated Philadelphia Eagles’ fans were hopeful. Hopeful that their silver and green football team wouldn’t give up 100 points to a Patriots offense that seemed destined to blister the same defense that allowed Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo to look like a modern-day Roger Staubach two weeks ago.

Undoubtedly, there had to have been scores of fans ready to watch the Eagles with their traditional E-A-G-L-E-S chants that they had prepared for the first half, and maybe the first five minutes of the third quarter. No one in their right mind would have thought that a chant would be appropriate past that point in the game on Sunday Night. Then of course, things would get out of hand and surely they would have already had pre-prepared complaints about how bad it is for the Patriots to go for it on fourth-down, up by 30 points.


It had to have been that way. Who’d believe that the Eagles, after struggling to beat the Miami Dolphins, the NFL’s worst team in almost a decade, could actually go in and appear to be nothing more than a Turkey that has finally stopped running, and decided that logically pleading with the farmer is the best way to stop the farmer from using him as Thanksgiving dinner, despite the obvious language roadblocks?

And then, the two teams actually played a game. Without backing down, or the excuse of injuries, the Eagles gave the Patriots more than they could handle. The Eagles stood on the verge of completing one of the greatest upsets in NFL history. Yes, those lowly Eagles, with their beaten-down and frustrated fans, began to believe that it could happen.

The defense, led by a healthy Brian Dawkins muffled Tom Brady and the Patriots’ offense, and rendered their usual masterpiece to look as ugly as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. More than anyone else besides the Indianapolis Colts, the Eagles defense got pressure on Tom Brady with cruel, calculated blitzing. Now, what had always seemed like genius this season when fans watched Tom Brady yell out blocking assignments, looked more like panic stricken calls of “hey, please block him, YES, the guy that has been hitting me all game!”

And that’s where the perfected beauty of that game ended.

On offense, with the emergence of back-up quarterback A.J. Feely into the starting lineup (due to an injury to starting-quarterback, Donovan McNabb), the only thing that appeared to be more frightening than hearing A.J Feely yell “Set-Hut!!”, was imagining Andy Reid covering his mouth with his play sheet, only to say “let’s run another pass play, and NOT give the ball to Brian Westbrook, our best player.” But, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Indeed, Feely played well enough to keep the Eagles in the game. However, he did not play great.

No, his downgrade from greatness was cemented right when Asante Samuel started smiling and dancing in the end-zone after returning a 40-yard interception for a touchdown, on the Eagles second play from scrimmage. It was further downgraded when Samuel picked off another Feely pass with 3:58 left in the game to end the Eagles’ chance of tying the game, and thus sealing their fate.

Yet, you’d think that he played like Brett Favre with all of the praise that was handed to him. The only thing more preposterous than hearing that he had a great performance, is hearing that he should be the starter now for the rest of the season.

Let’s be real here…

When you give up two interceptions that directly lead to your team losing, your performance as an NFL quarterback can never be called great, no matter what team you are playing.

Did the Eagles offense look good at times? Sure. But so has Tom Petty when his bangs have grown too long over his face. That doesn’t make him a model of attractive rock-stars, and nor should Feely’s performance be viewed as anything more than a sub-par performance.

All Eagles’ fans can complain that starting Donovan McNabb is inaccurate and holds the ball too long. They can even complain that sometimes, he appears gut-less, withering like sautéed spinach that had been soaked in olive oil with disgusting cruelty. But no one can argue that he over his career has been a better starting quarterback than A.J. Feely could ever be.

Let’s look at it: in his time in Miami, with better than average talent, Feely compiled a disgusting 61.7 quarterback rating. Feely was then replaced by average journeyman quarterback Jay Fiedler. On the other hand, Donovan McNabb has yet to dip under a 77.8 quarterback rating, since his second season in 2000.

The numbers don’t lie. A.J. Feely is not now, nor will he ever be anything more than a slightly below-average NFL quarterback, with a nice spiral. Heck, Joey Harrington took his starting job in college!

So while everyone has been clamoring for Donovan McNabb's starting job to be given to Feely, it’s important to take a clear look at things: when you throw three interceptions in a game, two of which directly lead to you losing, you did not have a great game. What you had was a game that forced your team to lose in a close game, no more, no less.